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Home , Political psychology

Special Topics in American

Political

Dr. Christopher Weber Department of Manship School of Mass Communication 204 Stubbs Hall [email protected] 8-6395 Office Hours: Monday 1-4PM (and by appointment)

Objective

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to historical and contemporary perspectives in . As a sub-discipline straddling political science and psychology, a thorough understanding of political psychology necessitates theoretical and methodological diversity. Many of the readings in this course will be drawn from social and , as well as scholarship in political science. This course serves as a foundation for the study of political psychology, especially as it pertains to mass political behavior.

What is political psychology? Is it an application of psychological theory to political processes? Is it applied social and cognitive psychology? Or, is political psychology an application of political theory to psychology? The answer to all these is, “yes and no!” Political psychology is the interdisciplinary pursuit of psychological and political questions; it brings together psychological understandings to political questions, as well as exploring how political contexts influence the ways people behave politically.

There is a heavy degree of cross-fertilization in political psychology. Psychological theories have been defined and refined after being tested in the political domain. Likewise, how we understand politics and political processes has been influenced by psychological theory. Thus, in order to thoroughly understand the state of political psychology, it is necessary to sample from both historical and contemporary works in both political science and psychology.

In this course we will begin with an overview of the field of political psychology and the ways that questions within political psychology have been studied. We will briefly overview the psychology of political attitudes, especially as it pertains to social groups and values. We will consider factors such as personality, context, and the intersection of context and personality in affecting attitudes. From this, we will segue into a discussion of the structure of political Special Topics in American Politics attitudes, and when, and under what conditions, do individuals adjust their political beliefs. In this section, we will draw heavily on both historical and contemporary perspectives on in both political science and psychology. Then, we will detail the factors that affect attitude change. Finally, we will examine the formation of social identities, how these identities apply to politics, and the role of identities in the domain of group conflict and racial attitudes.

Reading Assignments

The readings in this course include book chapters and journal articles. I will only distribute the book chapters and journal articles not available through our library. You will be able to access and download these through Moodle. You will be responsible for obtaining articles available through the library website.The vast majority of articles can be found on JSTOR and PsychArticles. In some cases, you can also search E-Journals on the library website and link directly to a journal.

We will draw heavily from the following textbook:

Jost, John T. and Jim Sidanius. 2004. Political Psychology: Key Readings in . Psychology Press, hereafter referred to as Political Psychology: Key Readings.

Optional readings. • Sears, David O. Leonie Huddy and Robert Jervis. 2003. The Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press. • Fiske, Susan T. and Shelley E. Taylor. 1991. . New York: McGraw Hill. • Zaller, John. 1992. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. New York: Cambridge University. • Marcus, George E, Russell Neuman, and Michael B. MacKuen. 2000. Affective and Political Judgment. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

My Teaching

Throughout the semester I will reiterate this, but I am available should you have any comments or concerns about the class. In addition to my office hours, I practice an “open door” policy. If my door is open, feel free to stop by. If I am not in, email me and I will get back to you in a timely manner. Since many of the concepts in this class come from psychology, they may be hard -- at least initially -- for some of you to grasp. It is your job to work hard this semester. It is my job to facilitate your learning of the material. Special Topics in American Politics

Procedures

1. Students must read all assignments in the text and readings available on Moodle and the library.

2. Cell phones must be to silent. For your safety, I will bring my phone to every class, which I have subscribed to the LSU emergency text message service.

3. Students should always come to class fully prepared and ready to learn.

4. All the assignments & projects MUST be submitted at the beginning of the class. NO LATE WORK WILL BE ACCEPTED.

5. Class attendance is critical for this course. You are expected to come to every class. If you miss a class without providing a valid excuse in writing, your grade may be lowered. (*E-mail notification will not be accepted as a valid excuse for an absence.)

6. An in-class quiz may be given when THREE or more students miss a class.

7. Come to class with assignments completed and reading material covered. Textbook reading assignments are listed in the syllabus. I will assume that you have read the assigned materials before the class and expect you to actively participate in class discussion.

8. If you have a disability which may require accommodation, you should immediately contact the Office of Services of Students with Disabilities to officially document the needed accommodation. You should immediately contact the Office of Disability Service to officially document the needed accommodation. You can find more information at http://appl003.lsu.edu/slas/ods.nsf/index

9. It is your responsibility to complete all works assigned in this course (e.g., tests, assignments) in full observation of the Academic Honor Code. Cheating, plagiarism or any form of academic dishonesty will be unacceptable. University regarding academic honesty will be strictly enforced. If you have any questions about academic dishonesty, please speak either with me or with someone in the Office of the Dean of Students. You can also learn more about it at http://appl003.lsu.edu/slas/dos.nsf/ $Content/Code+of+Conduct?OpenDocument#5.1 or https://paws002.lsu.edu

10. If a student engages in any form of academic dishonesty this will be reported to the Dean of Students. All assignments will be due at the beginning of the class period on Special Topics in American Politics

the established due date. Depending on where we are in the class, I may decide to alter a due date. Any changes will be announced in class. Makeup exams or assignments will be allowed only in the case of university excused absences. Documentation must be provided.

Grades

Grades will be determined by the following components:

• Short essays (3 x 50 pts=150 pts) • Classroom participation (50 pts) • Term paper (300 points) • Take home exam (150 points)

90%-100% A 80%-89% B 70%-79% C 60%-69% D 59% and below F

This course entails a large amount of reading. You should do your best to keep up with the reading and actively participate in class. You are responsible for three essays in this course. Each essay report should summarize the articles for a particular week, detailing the strengths and weaknesses of the author’s research design, and how the design could be improved and or extended. Do NOT simply type annotated bibliographies, rather, you should provide a detailed assessment of each article. Here are some things to think about: Do the articles effectively “speak” to one another? What are common themes linking the articles? Are theoretical or methodological weaknesses in one reading addressed in subsequent articles? How would you improve on a particular research design? How would you extend a particular finding? It is entirely up to you which weeks you want to write about. The only thing I ask is that your essay be handed in before we discuss the material in class.

You are required to complete a term paper for the class. The paper should relate to the theoretical concepts in political psychology. In the paper, you should incorporate readings Special Topics in American Politics from the course, as well as outside readings. The paper should include a thorough literature review and methods section. I will accept reports with analysis or a detailed proposal. If you do the former, your paper should include a literature review, a methods section, a results section, and a conclusion/discussion section. If you do the latter, you also need to include a literature review and methods section, but instead of conducting analyses and writing a conclusion, describe in detail how you would go about testing the hypotheses you establish and what you anticipate to find. Your final report should be roughly 20-30 pages in length and include all the required sections of an American Psychological Association (APA) style or American Journal of Political Science (AJPS) style report: Title page, abstract, introduction, methods, results (or anticipated results), discussion/conclusion, references, tables, figures, and appendix. Please adhere to APA or AJPS style for this report.

Finally, you will complete a take home exam. The exam will be open-book/open-notes and can be completed any time during finals week. The exam will mimic a comprehensive exam. You will be given a three hour period, of which you will write two short essays on a particular topic from the class, which I will provide. You will let me know when you want to take the exam, I will email you the exam, and you will have 3 hours from receipt of my email to write the exam and send it back. Special Topics in American Politics

Daily Schedule Please read all assigned readings prior to the listed meeting times. Please note that the course schedule is subject to change at my discretion. You are responsible for announced changes.

Putting things into perspective: Historical and Theoretical Approaches January 20: What is Political Psychology?

Political Psychology: Key Readings, Chapters 1 and 2 (pp. 1-39) and the appendix (Appendix: How to Read a Journal Article in Social Psychology) (pp. 467-476). Sullivan, John L., Wendy M. Rahn, and Thomas J. Rudolph. 2002. “The contours of political psychology: Situating research on political information processing. In James H. Kuklinski, ed., Thinking about Political Psychology. London: Cambridge University Press. Available on Moodle. Simon, Herbert. 1985. Human nature in politics: The dialogue of psychology and political science. American Political Science Review 79: 293-304. Available on JSTOR.

January 27: Historical and contemporary perspectives

Westen, Drew. 1998. The Scientific Legacy of : Toward a Psychodynamically Informed Science. Psychological Bulletin, 124: 336-373. Available on PsychArticles. Greenstein, Fred. 1992. “Can Personality and Politics be Studied Systematically? Political Psychology. Political Psychology: Key Readings. (pp. 109-124) Brown, Roger. 1965. The authoritarian personality and the organization of attitudes. In Social Psychology. NY: The Free Press. Political Psychology: Key Readings (pp.39-68).

Doty, Richard E., Bill E. Peterson, and David G. Winter. Brown, Roger. 1965. The authoritarian personality and the organization of attitudes. In Social Psychology. NY: The Free Press. Political Psychology: Key Readings (pp. 39-68)

February 3: The Importance of Context

Feldman, Stanley and Karen Stenner. 1997. “Perceived Threat and Authoritarianism.” Political Psychology. Available on JSTOR.

Feldman, Stanley. 2003 “Enforcing Social .” Political Psychology. Available on JSTOR. Special Topics in American Politics

Stenner, Karen. 2005. The Authoritarian Dynamic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 4. Available on Moodle.

Lavine, Howard, Lodge, Milton, Polichak, J., and Charles Taber. 2002. Explicating the Black Box through Experimentation: Studies of Authoritarianism and Threat. Political Analysis, 10, 342-360. Available on Moodle Lavine, H., Lodge, M., & Freitas, K. (2005). Authoritarianism, Threat, and Selective Exposure to Information. Political Psychology, 26, 219-244. Available on JSTOR

February 10: Conformity and Obedience

Brown, Roger. 1986. “Social forces in obedience and rebellion.” In Social Psychology. New York: The Free Press, 1-42. Available on Moodle. Kelman, Herbert C. and V. Lee Hamilton. “The Structure of Authority.” In Crimes of Obedience: Toward a Social Psychology of Authority and Responsibility. New Haven: Yale University Press. Available on Moodle. Reicher, Stephen and Alexander Haslam. 2006 “Rethinking the Psychology of Tyranny: The BBC Prison Study.” British Journal of Social Psychology, 45,1. 1-40. Available through the Library Website. Cohen, Geoffrey 2003. “Party over Policy: The Dominating Impact of Group Influence on Political Beliefs.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85. 808-822. Available on PsychArticles.

Models of Attitudes and Attitude Change February 17: The Structure of Beliefs in the Mass Public

Katz, Daniel. 1960. “The Functional Approach to the Study of Attitudes.” Public Opinion Quarterly, 23: 163-204. Available through the Library Website. Fazio, R., Jackson, J., Dunton, B., and Williams, C. 1995. “Variability in Automatic Activation as an Unobtrusive Measure of Racial Attitudes: A Bona Fide Pipeline?” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, pp. 1013-1027. Available on PsychArticles. Converse, Philip E. 1960. “The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics.” Political Psychology, Key Readings (pp. 181-199). Zaller, John and Stanley Feldman. 1992. “Answering Questions versus Revealing Preferences: A Simple Model of the Survey Response.” American Journal of Political Science, Available on JSTOR. Special Topics in American Politics

Lodge, Milton, Marco R. Steenbergen, and Shawn Brau. 1995. “The Responsive Voter: Campaign Information and the Dynamics of Candidate Evaluation.” American Political Science Review, 89: 309-326. Available on JSTOR.

February 24: The Automatic Activation of Attitudes and Decision-Making

Murphy, S.T. and R.B Zajonc. 1993. “Affect, Cognition, and Awareness: Affective Priming with Optimal and Suboptimal Exposures.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 5. 723-739. Available on PsychArticles. Fazio, R. H., Sanbonmatsu, D. M., Powell, M. C., Kardes, F. R. 2001. “On the automatic activation of attitudes.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 50, 229-238. Available on PsychArticles.

Todorov, Alexander, Anesu N. Mandisododza, Amir Goren, Crystal Hall. 2005. “Inferences of Competence from Faces Predict Outcomes.” Science, 308. pp.1623-1626. Available through Science on the Library Website.

Lodge, Milton, Charles Taber, and Christopher Weber. 2006. “First steps towards a dual-process accessibility model of political beliefs, attitudes, and behavior.” In David Redlawsk [Ed.] Feeling Politics. Palgrave Macmillan: New York. Available on Moodle.

Quattrone, George A. and . “Contrasting Rational and Psychological Analysis of Political Choice.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 2: 237-248. Political Psychology: Key Readings (pp. 244-258).

March 3: Values and Ideology

Jost. John T., Jack Glaser, Arie Kruglanski, and Frank Sulloway. “Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition.” Psychological Bulletin. Available on Library Website. Tetlock, Philip E. 1986. “A Value Pluralism Model of Ideological Reasoning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 819-827. Available on PsychArticles. Tetlock, Philip E. 1984. “Cognitive Style and Political Belief in the British House of Commons.”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 2.. Political Psychology: Key Readings (pp. 230-240).

Conover, Pamela and Stanley Feldman. 1981 “The Origins and of Liberal/ Conservative Self-Identifications.” American Journal of Political Science, 25. Political Psychology: Key Readings (pp. 200-216). Special Topics in American Politics

Hurwitz, Jon and Mark Peffley. 1987. “How are Attitudes Structured? A Hierarchical Model. American Political Science Review, 81: 1099-1110. Available on JSTOR.

March 10: Attitude Formation and Change

Huckfeldt, Robert, Jeffrey Levine, William Morgan, and John Sprague. 1999. “Accessibility and the Political Utility of Partisan and Ideological Orientations.” American Journal of Political Science. Available on JSTOR. Eagly, Alice and Shelly Chaikein. 1991. The Psychology of Attitudes. New York: Thompson, Wadsworth. Chapter 3. Available on Moodle. Fiske, Susan T. and Shelley E. Taylor. 1991. Social Cognition. New York: McGraw Hill. Chapter 11. Available on Moodle. Lavine, Howard. 2001. “The electoral consequences of ambivalence toward presidential candidates.” American Journal of Political Science, 45: 915-929. Available on JSTOR.

March 17: The Media

Iyengar, Shanto, Mark D. Peters, and Donald Kinder. 1982. “Experimental Consequences of the ‘not-so-minimal’ Consequences of Television News Programs.” American Political Science Review, 76: 848-858. Political Psychology: Key Readings (pp. 139-149).

Nelson, Thomas, Rosalee Clawson, and Zoe M. Oxley. 1997. “Media Framing of Civil Liberties Conflict and its Effect on Tolerance.” American Political Science Review, 91: 567-583. Available on JSTOR. Lodge, Milton and Charles Taber. 2006. “Motivated Skepticism in the Evaluation of Political Beliefs. American Journal of Politics Science. Available on JSTOR. Freedman, P. and Ken Goldstein. 2002. “Campaign Advertising and Voter Turnout: New Evidence for a Stimulation Effect.” The Journal of Politics, 64(3), 721-740. Available on JSTOR. Jon Krosnick and Donald Kinder. 1990. “Altering the Foundations of Support for the President through Priming.” American Political Science Review, 84 (2), 497-512. Political Psychology: Key Readings (pp. 150-162).

March 24: The Role of Special Topics in American Politics

Marcus, George and Michael MacKuen. 1993. “, Enthusiasm, and the Vote: The Emotional Underpinnings of Learning and Involvement during Presidential Campaigns.” American Journal of Political Science. Political Psychology: Key Readings (pp. 163-176).

Brader, Ted. 2005. “Striking a Responsive Chord: How Campaign Ads Motivate and Persuade Voters by Appealing to .” American Journal of Political Science, 42, 2. Available on JSTOR.

Huddy, Leonie, Stanley Feldman, and Erin Cassese. 2007. “On the Distinct Political Effects of Anxiety and Anger.” In W. Russel Neuman, George E. Marcus, Ann Crigler, and Michael Mackuen, eds, The Affect Effect: Dynamics of Emotion in Political Thinking and Behavior. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Available on Moodle. Lerner, Jennifer and Dacher Keltner. 2001. “Fear, anger, and risk.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 1.Available on PsychArticles Valentino, N., V. Hutchings, A. Banks, and A. Davis. 2008. “Is a Worried Citizen a Good Citizen? Emotions, Political Information Seeking, and Learning via the Internet. Political Psychology. Available on JSTOR.

Intergroup Conflict and Racial Attitudes March 31: Perspectives on Group Conflict Realistic Conflict Theory

Sherif, Muzafer, O.J. Harvey, B. Jack White, William R. Hood, Carolyn W. Sherif. 1961. Intergroup Conflict and Cooperation: The Robbers Cave Experiment. In Classics in the of Psychology. Christopher D. Green, ed (chs 2-6). Bobo, Lawrence. 1988. “Group Conflict, Prejudice, and The Paradox of Contemporary Racial Attitudes.” Perspectives in Social Psychology. Political Psychology: Key Readings (pp. 333-357).

Social Identity Theory

Tajfel, Henri and John C. Turner. 1981. “The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior.” Political Psychology: Key Readings (pp. 276-293). Huddy, Leonie. 2004. “Contrasting Theoretical Approaches to .” Political Psychology. 25 (6): 947-967. Available on JSTOR.

Integrated Theories Special Topics in American Politics

Sidanius, Jim and Felicia Pratto. 1999. “: A New Synthesis.” Social Dominance Theory. Political Psychology: Key Readings (pp. 315-322). Weber, Christopher and Christopher Federico. 2007. “Interpersonal Attachment and Patterns of Ideological Belief.” Political Psychology, 28. 389-341. Available on JSTOR.

April 7: No Class-Spring Break

April 14: Group Conflict and Racial Attitudes

Sears, David O., Colette Van Laar, and Mary Carrillo. 1997. “Is it Really Racism? The Origins of White Americans’ Opposition to Race Targeted Policy.” Public Opinion Quarterly, 1. Political Psychology: Key Readings (pp. 358-377).

Jost, John and Mahzarin Banaji.1994. “The Role of Stereotyping in System-Justification and the Production of False Consciousness.” British Journal of Social Psychology, 33. Political Psychology: Key Readings (pp. 294-314). Federico, Christopher. 2006. “Race, Education, and Individualism Revisited. Journal of Politics, 68. 600-610. Available on JSTOR. Devine. Patricia. 1989. “Stereotypes and Prejudice: Their Automatic and Controlled Components.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 1. 5-18. Available on PsychArticles.

April 21: The Political Implications of Race

Mendelberg, Tali. 2001. The Race Card; Campaign Strategy, Implicit Messages, and the Norma of Equality. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Available on Moodle. Huber, Gregory A. and John S. Lapinski, 2006. “The "Race Card" Revisited: Assessing Racial Priming in Policy Contests,” American Journal of Political Science, 50, 2 . 421-440. Available on JSTOR. Brader, Ted, Nicholas Valentino and Elizabeth Suhay. 2008. “What Triggers Public Opposition to Immigration? Anxiety, Group Cues, and Immigration Threat.” American Journal of Political Science. Available on JSTOR. Sniderman, Paul and Edward Carmines. 1997. Reaching Beyond Race. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Available on Moodle.

Biological Theories and Context

April 28: The Biological Foundations of Political Attitudes Special Topics in American Politics

Alford, John R., Carolyn L. Funk, and John R. Hibbing. “Are Political Orientations Genetically Transmitted?” American Political Science Review, 99, 2. 153-167. Available on JSTOR.

Fowler, James and Darren Schreiber. 2008 “Biology, Politics, and the Emerging Science of Human Nature.” Science, 7. 912-914.. Available through Science on the Library website.

Charney. 2008. “Genes and .” Perspectives on Politics, 6, 2. 299-319. Available on Moodle.

Alford, John R., Carolyn L. Funk and John R. Hibbing. 2008. “Beyond Liberals and Conservatives to Political Genotypes and Phenotypes.” Perspectives on Politics, 6, 2. Perspectives on Politics. Available on Moodle.

Hatemi, Peter K., Sarah Medland, and Lindon J. Eaves. 2009. “Do Genes Contribute to the Gender Gap?” Journal of Politics. Available on Moodle.

May 5: The Role of Threat

Pyzszynski, Tom, Sheldon Solomon, and Jeff Greenberg. 2003. In the Wake of 9/11: The Psychology of Terror. Chapters 1 through 4. New York: American Psychological Association. Available on Moodle. Huddy, Leonie, Stanley Feldman, and Christopher Weber. 2009. “The Political Consequences of Perceived Threat and Felt Insecurity.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences. Available on Moodle.

Huddy, Leonie, Stanley Feldman, Charles Taber, and G. Lahav. 2005. “Threat, Anxiety, and Support of Anti-Terrorism Policies.” American Journal of Political Science, 49. 610-615. Available on JSTOR.

May 7: TERM PAPER DUE. PLEASE LEAVE A COPY IN MY MAILBOX BY 12PM

May 7-May 14: FINAL EXAM MUST BE TAKEN DURING THIS WEEK